Shaun Morgan: "I would like to thank family, friends, bands and fans across the world thank you for helping me and my family through this tough time. Eugene, I will miss you forever and keep you in my heart. I love you, little brother. Rest in Peace."

Well, my philosophy with the whole label is that I want to work with young bands that are hardworking and they know that they have to do everything themselves. Either you have it or you don't. You're never going to acquire, like, no one's ever going to say to you, "Here you go. Here's record sales and huge tours." You've got to work for it, and either you have that attitude or you don't. That drive, I mean.

Letter from the Editor

Ladies and Gentlemen – welcome to the show. I’ve been busy here in Atlanta; you may notice something very fucking weird about this issue. That’s right, we’ve got Otep Shamaya as our first female cover in the history of Musicincider.com. We respect her becoming a catalyst for social and political change. Then of course, we have Anew Revolution, Kerli, Seether, and Type O Negative and that is all I will tell you so you will read the issue my little minions. There have been many other women in rock that were candidates for our covers, but it was always difficult to figure out who to put up - so I generally just avoided the issue all together and put up a guy with a nice ass.

So speaking of asses, I was pissed off when I found out that Hank William’s Sr. was no longer a member of the Grand Ole Opry. I respect country music as an art form and a means for expression, but I found it a travesty that the original country outlaw was kicked out in 1952 with the intention that he clean up his act, but sadly died before he had that chance. Hank was born with a spinal defect called Spinal Bifida Occulta that caused him extreme back pain; as is often the case with people suffering from chronic pain, the booze was a way to self-medicate. It’s now 2008, and the Opry still has yet to reinstate Hank Sr. His grandson, a talented musician himself (read our interview with Hank III in our archives), is headlining the movement to have Hank Sr. reinstated – you can help by signing the petition here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/reinstate-hank-williams.html Death gives everyone a clean slate and a chance at redemption.

Speaking of deaths, Michelle Meldrum passed away. She was truly a pioneering female guitar player, both with her own bands Meldrum and Phantom Blue as well as when sharing a stage with the likes of Motorhead, Danzig, Sepultura and Nashville Pussy, among others. She suffered a cerebral brain hemorrhage right after finishing the third album for Meldrum and she will be missed.

We’ve included more women in this issue. Why? I have found being a female photographer that my lack of a penis is a problem with getting paid work and have actually been told that I am not MAN enough to cover certain artists. My question is this: if you were a male rock star, who would you rather have taking photos of your crotch - me or Ross Halfin. So Musicincider has decided to give the girls a break, because I understand what it is like to NOT have a penis and having to work twice as hard for everything I get.

Memorable show moments over the past few months: Joan Jett singing the Mary Tyler Moore theme song at Chastain; Shaun Morgan on Cinco de Mayo at the Masquerade Music Park singing Broken; and last but not least, the Shinedown concert. It was quite memorable, it reopened the Tabernacle after the tornado and the preshow with every other girl flashing their tits to the crowd was quite, um, unforgettable. For those of you that have asked, no, I did not take any pictures of the girls flashing their tits to the crowd. It would have been impossible to track them down to get them to sign model releases so that I could use them, plus, you all have camera phones anyway - so what the fuck.

“Photographers are violent people. First they frame you, then they shoot you, then they hang you on the wall.” – Anon.